Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The commitment, dedication and hard work of community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors, who are employees of organisations in the community and voluntary sector, is greatly appreciated. These organisations deliver much-needed support services at community level to users every day throughout the year.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection assumed responsibility for the community employment programme from FÁS in January 2012. Community employment schemes are typically sponsored by voluntary and community organisations wishing to benefit the local community. As the employers, these sponsoring organisations contract with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection on an annual basis to provide jobseekers, as well as other vulnerable groups, with good quality work experience and training qualifications to support their progression into employment. Community employment participants work an average of 19.5 hours per week. Virtually all participants are engaged in some element of service support and delivery such as amenities management, arts and culture, sports, Tidy Towns, childcare and health-related services.

Since 2012, the community employment scheme has been subject to major programme changes which have resulted in significant savings, greater accountability by sponsoring organisations and improved oversight by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. In July 2008, IMPACT and SIPTU brought a claim to the Labour Court seeking Exchequer-funded pension provision for community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors. The outcome was a Labour Court recommendation that FÁS, as the recognised funding agency, should fund the pension provision. On this recommendation, the position has always been that neither FÁS nor the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection are the employer. Accordingly, it is not possible for the State to provide funding for such a scheme to employees of private companies, even if those companies are, or were, reliant on State funding.

The community sector high-level forum, reinstated in 2015, includes representatives of various Departments, statutory agencies and union representatives. The forum is chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Membership includes the Departments of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Health, Education and Skills, and Housing, Planning and Local Government, along with Pobal and IMPACT and SIPTU, the two unions which represent the community employment scheme supervisors and assistant supervisors. This forum has since met on several occasions.

At a meeting in April 2017, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform outlined its intention to conduct a detailed scoping exercise to comprehensively examine and assess the full potential implications of the issues under consideration. A detailed scoping exercise was carried out with input from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, on the potential costs of providing Exchequer support for the establishment of such a pension scheme for employees across the community and voluntary sector.

The exercise clearly illustrated that this matter presents very significant issues for the Exchequer, with a potential cost to the State of €188 million per annum in respect of funding to enable an employer pension contribution in State-funded community and voluntary organisations, excluding any provision for immediate ex gratia lump sum payment of pension as sought, which could, depending on the size of the sector, entail a further Exchequer cost of up to €318 million. As previously stated however, community employment supervisors are employees of private companies and are not employed by the State, notwithstanding the fact that the companies concerned are, or were, reliant on State funding.

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